Just Sing
(UK, 93 min.)
Dir. Abraham Troen, Angelique Molina
Prod. Sarah Thomson, John Battsek
The lyrics of Bob Dylan’s political ballad “The Times They Are A-Changin’” hold as much power now as they did when the song was released in 1964. However, audiences likely haven’t heard them performed with the level of heartfelt emotion with which they appear in Just Sing. As the members of the SoCal VoCals belts out Dylan’s song A Cappella with earnest theatrical panache and heartfelt sincerity, the students from the University of Southern California’s A Cappella group lend potent contemporary resonance to the song.
Just Sing from directors Abraham Troen and Angelique Molina observes the teammates of the SoCal VoCals as they set their eyes on first place in the International Competition of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCAC). The singers insist that the SoCal VoCals aren’t a glee club and that there’s far more to the art of A Cappella than the movie Pitch Perfect suggests. There’s a lot that Pitch Perfect seems to get right, though, as the team rehearses with painstaking dedication for the competition that Anna Kendrick and company performed in the hit comedy. Many of the singers acknowledge an indebtedness to Pitch Perfect, too. Thankfully, though, nobody in Just Sing performs “The Cup Song,” so they’re all winners in my book.
This immediately enjoyable film asks if it’s possible to make a competition documentary by cutting out the competition. Just Sing bucks the tried-and-tested formula of the competition film. Instead of following a handful of teams vying for the top-prize and following the route of sure-fire crowd-pleasers like Whistle and Speak! as contenders are whittled down to finalists and a nail-biter announcement, Just Sing hones in on one company. It’s refreshing to see a documentary avoid cliché and predictability by forgoing the easy route. The stakes both dramatic and emotional play differently, in part thanks to A Capella’s whimsical charm and its ability to tug at heartstrings with an unabashed serving of heartfelt cheese. How can you not love a documentary that includes a bunch of pure raw voices belting out “The Edge of Glory” by Lady Gaga?
The film follows the group as they practice their numbers for different stages of the ICCAC. (Spoiler alert: they advance.) The singers feel considerable pressure meeting the bar set by previous generations of the esteemed SoCal VoCals. They won’t settle for second place. To them, being runner-up means the highest note was so close yet still beyond reach. SoCal VoCal alumni cheer them on, though, as previous classes join their parties and pick up a tune now and then. The current teammates hope that victory will lead to exciting paths, as previous SoCal VoCals have gone on to enjoy careers as performers, in some cases earning wins and nominations at the Grammys.
The stakes are high, too, because the A Cappella competition holds significance in the teammates’ futures. They’re all betting big on a career in musical performance, but so too are the competitors on rival teams. As several students (and their parents) note, there are no back-up plans for someone studying musical performance.
Just Sing zooms in on select members of the SoCal Vocals to capture the hearts that fuel their songs. Tiffany Galaviz, the group’s unofficial lead vocalist, shares what it means to juggle multiple jobs and musical genres. She plays mariachi to pay the bills and dedicates herself to A Cappella with hopes of being the next Adele. Sam Avila, meanwhile, opens up about having a father who was away for much of his childhood after enlisting in Afghanistan. Sam and his parents get emotional recalling how his dad’s PTSD, which led to a suicide attempt, shaped a future for a budding performer who found a natural outlet through song.
The catharsis is real here for many of Sam’s teammates. For example, Dylan Beck reflects on growing up as the only gay teen in a small town, and then struggled to click with the queer scene once he came to California. While Just Sing focuses on the origin stories of select few members of the SoCal Vocals, other singers, like Yohanna Bauerdorf and Mateo Gonzales, serve as the eyes through which audiences see the choreography, rehearsals, and workshopping process.
A Cappella lends an intimate cinematic quality to the performances, interviews, and behind the scenes views. Whether through confessional interview or song, each member of the company gets their chance to open their hearts to the audience.
This intimacy proves particularly compelling in the group’s rendition of “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” The singers reflect upon the significance of Dylan’s ballad for a group with many LGBTQ+ members or singers with friends and family members implicated in the alarming rollback of queer and trans rights. They interpret the song as it speaks to them in 2023—as young people whose futures are being determined by out-of-touch authority figures. Here’s where the magic of A Cappella works wonders. The SoCal VoCals strips the song to its essentials, yet build it up with a theatrical framework that opens the hearts of audiences to engage with the message.
Just Sing then finds considerable tension as the SoCal VoCals ambitiously rehearse their song for the next stage of the competition. They want to outperform expectations by going with Beyoncé’s “Cuff It.” The sexy R&B number hardly lends itself to the emotional punctuation marks that make the Dylan cover an obvious winner. And instead of passion the mic to different singers to lead, “Cuff It” makes one singer shoulder an enormously difficult task. But the rehearsals, bumpy as they are, show off the technical complexity of both the song and A Cappella as the singers transform the seductive bass lines into vocalised accompaniment.
While the SoCal VoCals easily wow a viewer, though, Just Sing doesn’t give a frame of reference to show how they stack up against the competition. This framing makes Just Sing more of a profile film in lieu of a standard competition documentary. And if the film ever feels lacking, it’s in the absence of glimpses of other groups challenging the singers for the title.
The film provides a fly-on-the-wall view for judges’ deliberations, but audience won’t have any idea what they’re discussing. The absence of competitors undercuts the tension in climactic moments simply because one doesn’t know how the SoCal VoCals stack up to the names being announced. Either way, though, Just Sing aims for the heart and doesn’t miss. One can’t help but root for the SoCal VoCals even if they’re the only voices on display.
